California, and in particular Los Angeles, has been home to numerous Hollywood stars and other glamorous figures of the burgeoning jet-set since the 1930s. The City of Angels was the ideal place for many architects to develop their ideas. The spectacular landscape, the sophisticated clientele, the climate, the wealth of the film industry, and, above all, the free-thinking that transcended all convention offered architects then, as well as now, the opportunity to realise their visionary projects.

Tellingly, some of the most creative minds to help shape the modern Californian style crossed the country to work there. Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler knew each other already from their Vienna days, where they had studied under Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. Both stayed with Frank Lloyd Wright in Taliesin, albeit not at the same time, and, by chance, met again in Los Angeles in 1925.